By Ven. Sarah Thresher

Lama Zopa Rinpoche has been staying at Root Institute in Bodhgaya, India, where he has been engaged in nonstop virtuous activities. Ven. Sarah Thresher was with Rinpoche in Bodhgaya and shares this report.

Rinpoche designed and commissioned an altar for the rooftop of his house at Root Institute. Not just one small altar filled with pictures, statues of buddhas, water bowl offerings and light offerings, but a series of altars that stretch the width of the rooftop. Rinpoche wanted people to see this new altar to get some ideas and inspiration. Holy objects are incredibly precious and if we don’t make full use of them, we are wasting our good fortune.

This is where Rinpoche does prostrations facing towards the Mahabodhi Stupa. Rinpoche does not always need assistance to do full length prostrations, but he has replaced the wooden prostration board with a mattress just in case.

UPDATE: Root Institute director Ven. Thubten Labdron wrote to Mandala that “Rinpoche said this altar is not just for Rinpoche. Anyone can come and do their prostration ngöndro on the roof (when Rinpoche is not in residence).”

Learn more about Lama Zopa Rinpoche, spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), and Rinpoche’s vision for a better world. Sign up to receive news and updates.

We hear religious people talk a lot about morality. What is morality? Morality is the wisdom that understands the nature of the mind. The mind that understands its own nature automatically becomes moral, or positive; and the actions motivated by such a mind also become positive. That’s what we call morality. The basic nature of the narrow mind is ignorance; therefore the narrow mind is negative.